Well let us turn to God's Word
and I want to direct you to a familiar verse I'm sure that we find in
the book of Proverbs in Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23. Familiar word, a text that I'm
sure we're all well aware of and we have looked at it on previous
occasions. Keep thy heart with all diligence
for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4.23 Keep thy
heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. I want to try to say something
tonight with regards to heart religion. It is of course very
much the religion of the New Covenant. Think of the great
promise that we have in Ezekiel 36.26 a new heart also I will give
you and a new spirit I will put within you and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of
flesh the promise then of that new covenant is that God will
bless his people with a new heart, a new nature they'll be those
who are partakers of the divine nature by that grace of regeneration,
that effectual work, those sovereign operations of the Spirit of God
in the souls of sinners. So I want to address that subject
of heart religion. And here in the text, keep thy
heart with all diligence. Margin says, literally, above
all keeping, for out of it are the issues of life. In order to be kept, of course,
the heart must be known. We must know ourselves. We certainly
are aware, I'm sure that God knows, that nothing is concealed
from his sight. He knows the ends from the beginning. We're told, aren't we, how man
looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh upon the
heart. And what solemn words we have
previously in Scripture concerning the state of man after the fall. Back in Genesis 6, 5, God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every
imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. We're told it's a Hebraism. Every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil continually. The heart deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord,
search the hearts. I know the reins to give to every
man according to the fruit of his doings. And of course if
we would know what our hearts are we have to come to the word
of God. It's here in scripture that God doesn't just reveal
himself but he tells us something of ourselves. We were made in
that image of God and created after that likeness. We are to
see ourselves as it were in the mirror of the world and what
do we see? We see how far we have fallen from the glory of
God. The Word of God, quick and powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword, says Paul, dividing asunder soul
and spirit, and the joints and marrows, a discerner of the thoughts
and the intents of the hearts. And so he speaks there in the
end of Hebrews chapter 4. And we understand that in terms
of the Word it does reveal to us something of what we are,
the commandment of God, how broad it is. how it catches us out. But if we look at the context
there in Hebrews 4, it is evident that the word being spoken of
is not so much the word in Scripture, but the word incarnate, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And remember John's vision there
in the opening chapter of Revelation. We have that description of the
Lord Christ, the Glorified One, and his eyes are said to be as
a flame of fire all those eyes so searching, so penetrating
and those are the eyes that run to and through throughout the
whole earth here in this book in chapter 15 and verse 3 we're
told the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the
evil and the good there is no hiding then from God He sees
us and He sees into the depths of our souls and when He comes
to have dealings with us He makes manifest something of what we
are Paul writing in his epistles says God will make manifest the
counsels of the heart all things that are reproved
are reproved by light when God's light comes into our souls then
we begin to know something of ourselves and our true condition. But we have this exhortation
here in this 23rd verse in chapter 4 of the Proverbs, keep thy heart
with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. Looking then at this heart's
religion for a little while and first of all to see what he said
here concerning how all the issues of life proceed
from the hearts of men. That's what the scripture declares. And the word that we have here,
issuing, literally means to come out, to go forth, to proceed. Now, we know that that's true
with regards to our physical lives, the importance of that
vital organ, the heart. How necessary it is, it's the
heart of course that pumps blood into every part of our bodies. We desire that we might have
a healthy heart, that we might be able to live our lives to
the full. and the heart is very much associated
then with life, with the blood of life. And the scriptures make
that quite clear, verses that we have in the book of Leviticus.
The life of the flesh, it says, is in the blood. Leviticus 17.11. Again at verse 14, it is the
life of all flesh. The blood of it is for the life
of it. And we're told there in that
17th chapter the significance of the blood with regards to
sacrifices. The sacrifices are associated
with the shedding of blood, the pouring out as it were, of the
life in sacrifice. those words in Leviticus 17.11
for the life of the flesh is in the blood says God and I have
given it upon the altar to make atonement for it is the blood
that make atonement for the soul and we are told aren't we without
the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins The shedding
of blood is so important and we see it so remarkably in the
bloody death that the Lord Jesus Christ himself died. His body
there upon the cross bathed in blood. Of course in the garden
he swears a bloody sweat. His body in a sense was bathed
in blood even there in all the agonies of his soul as he contemplated
that great sacrifice that he was about to make and then How,
of course, the crowd of thorns is forced about his temples,
how he's whipped, his bleeding head, his bleeding back, his
hands, his feet pierced as they nail him to the cross, the soldiers
smear thrust into his side. It's a bloody scene, and he is
pouring out his soul onto death. So, the heart, the heart is associated
with with blood, that blood that goes to every part of our bodies. And ultimately we see the wonder
of it in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. But thinking
of the statement that we have at the end of the text, out of
it, are the issues of life. Isn't there a sense in which
there's a deeper spiritual meaning to this statement? It's not just
that the life is in the blood in a physical sense, but spiritually. The Puritan John Flavel remarks
here concerning the heart, it is the seat of principles and
the fountain of actions. We're not simply to think in
terms of that part of our anatomy, we're to think in a spiritual
fashion. And we see it here in the context. I know often when we read the
book of Proverbs we seem to think that the verses are not altogether
related one to another, often they are simple statements that
we have, but there is a connection sometimes, and certainly in this
paragraph at the end of this fourth chapter. Keep thy heart
with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Put
away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from
thee. Let thine eyes look right on,
and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path
of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not
to the right hand, nor to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. The heart is mentioned first
of all here in verse 23, keep thy heart. and it governs all those various
things that follow where we read of the mouth and the lips and
the eyes and the face and we have those words of the Lord
Jesus himself out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. It's interesting how the heart
is spoken of in scripture in relation to a variety of things,
memory, understanding, conscience. The psalmist in the 119th Psalm
says, Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin
against thee. What is it to hide God's word
in the heart? Well, it's memory, isn't it? If we're hiding it in our heart,
we're seeking to remember it. We know it's the sword of the
Spirit, and it's good to commit Scripture to memory, that we
might be able to answer the great adversity of souls. How does
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself resist His temptations in the
wilderness? We know how the devil can quote
Scripture himself, but he often misquotes and he does to the
Lord Jesus. But the Lord puts him to flight because the Lord
takes up that sword of the Spirit and uses it to great effect.
thy word have I hid in mine heart we are to remember the word of
God we are to meditate in the word of God but heart is also used in reference
to the understanding in the opening chapter of Romans
we are told that man's foolish heart was darkened his heart
was darkened but what is that heart that is darkened? Well,
Ephesians 4.18, we read of the Gentiles having the understanding
darkened, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts. Surely
there the reference is to the understanding being darkened,
the blindness and the ignorance of our understandings. And yet,
it's the word heart that is used in reference to the understanding. there in that opening chapter
of Romans man's foolish heart was darkened he is so ignorant
because he is in that awful state of alienation from God he has
no desire for God again the word heart is also
used in reference to the conscience that's how John employs the word
There in that first general epistle, 1 John chapter 3, and verses
20 and 21, If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart,
and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemneth
not, then have we confidence towards God. Surely there he's
referring to the heart in terms of conscience, the conscience
that condemns us. when we act contrary to those
moral principles that God has put in the hearts of all men.
It's interesting isn't it how there in the opening chapter
of Romans we read of that law of God that is written upon the
hearts even of those who never hear the law of God as it's set
forth in scripture there is something written upon man's heart that
the conscience appeals to. But the word heart by John is
clearly used in reference to the conscience that either condemns
or excuses. But then I suppose principally
the word heart in scripture is used in reference to the soul. It's almost used as a synonym
with the word soul. When God says later in chapter
23 of Proverbs, My son, give me thine heart, isn't that the reference to all
that the man is? It is so. Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. and with
all thy mind, says the Lord Jesus. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is, like unto
it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself upon these two commandments,
he says, hangs all thee the Lord of God. To love the Lord thy
God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the might.
And again in the law God says, to his people, Israel, only take
heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligent. We're to keep
our souls, we're to keep our hearts. What is a man profited,
says the Lord Jesus, if he gained the whole world and lose his
own soul? What shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Or we're to think here surely
in terms of all that a man is, in the very depths of his being,
what he is in his soul, what he is in his heart. Keep thy
heart above all keeping, for out of it are the issues of life."
Well, having sought to say something with regards to what we're to
understand by the heart, and those issues of life that proceed
from it, let's turn in the second place to the word of exhortation
that we have here. Keep thy heart with all diligence. As I've already said, the margin
tells us that the Hebrew is literally above all keeping. And I want us to observe two
things here with regard to the heart. First of all, how it is
the source of all our sins, alas. It's a source of all our sins.
Our sins proceed from our sinful nature, our fallen nature. And
then, secondly, the solemn responsibility that's being laid upon us in
the exhortation. First of all, what is the heart? It is the source of everything
in our lives that is contrary to God and the ways of God and
the word of God we've already referred to those words in Jeremiah
17.9 the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked
who can know it how can we begin to know to comprehend what we
are as sinners and what it is that God
beholds of us in our sins and God sees it as I said God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in all the earth every
imagination of the thought of his heart evil continually and
yet here is the exhortation keep thy heart keep thy heart again
Flavel says heart work is hard work heart work is hard work
what are we to do then? May we need to be those who would
look to the Lord God Himself. This is what David does at the
end of the 139th Psalm. Search me, O God, and know my
heart, he says. Try me, and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting. Isn't David recognizing that
he cannot keep his own heart? This is where we have to begin.
our own utter inability, really, of ourselves we cannot keep the commandment of God as
we have it here in the text, the exhortation of the text.
Chapter 20 and verse 9, who can say, I have made my heart clean,
I am pure from my sin. We cannot, we cannot cleanse
ourselves. What are we to do? Well, we are
to look to the Lord God. and we're to look to him in prayer.
This is what the Psalmist does. Psalm 86 and verse 11. Unite
my heart, he says, to fear thine eye. Oh, our heart, you see, it's so divided. Even in those who are regenerate,
those who are the people of God, we have an old nature as well
as a new nature. And you are familiar, I'm sure,
with the content of Romans 7 and all that the Apostle felt of
that dreadful conflict. The good that I would, I do not.
The evil that I would, not that I do. Unite my heart to fear
thy name. We have to commit the keeping
of our hearts, the keeping of our souls unto God. the New Testament,
Peter writing there in his first epistle in chapter 4 and verse
19, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the
keeping of their own soul to Him in well-doing as a faithful
creator all we have to look to God who is the faithful one who
will keep us and so we are to pray all this Exhortation, like
any commandment of God, surely, drives us to prayer. We continually
fall short. We cannot of ourselves do these
things, so we pray. And of course, when we come to
pray, we have the promise of God to plead. God has given us
His word, God has given us His promise. And as I said right
at the outset, what is the great promise of the New Covenant?
Well, God says to His people a new heart. a new heart will
I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart
of flesh we have to learn our complete and utter dependence
upon the Lord we have to pray but how are we to pray? well
we are to pray in faith again the language of the apostle
He says in Ephesians 3, that Christ may dwell in your heart
by faith. Oh, we want Christ in our hearts. We want that promise of the new
covenant accomplished in us. Paul could say, please God to
reveal His Son in me. We want that inward revelation
of the Saviour. And again, we see it in the language
of the Psalmist. Oh, keep my soul and deliver
me, let me not be ashamed for I put my trust in thee. Psalm 25 and verse 20. What is
David saying? He puts his trust in the Lord
and that is where he finds safety. That's how his heart is kept.
Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to
be revealed at the last time. But what a solemn responsibility
is this that's clearly laid upon us. Keep thy heart, it's very
personal, it's a singular pronoun, keep thy heart with all diligence,
for out of it are the issues of life. Again the Pusan said it's the
great work of a Christian. Those who have an interest in
that New Covenant, this is the work that we're called to, this
is to be our chief concern. What is it that God desires?
Well, David knew. Behold, he says, thou desirest
truth in the inward part, and in the hidden part thou wilt
make me to know wisdom. after his terrible sins in the
matter of Bathsheba and Uriah, her husband, he was a murderer
with David, he was an adulterer. But he knew, he knew a real repentance. We have that great Psalm, that
51st Psalm and his prayer there as he comes before the Lord God
against thee, the only have I sinned and done this evil. In thy sight,
he says, behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and
in the hidden parts thou wilt make me to know wisdom. What does that mean? It means
that God looks for something of sincerity. We are to be very much aware
of the great evil of formalism, and that's really what we see.
in the portion that we read there in the 15th chapter of Matthew. The Lord is dealing of course
with the scribes and with the Pharisees and they were the formalists
and the hypocrites of the day. And what does the Lord say? He
addresses them very plainly in verse 7 of that chapter. Ye hypocrites,
well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, These people draweth
nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." And he's quoting of
course there from Isaiah 29. And it's interesting because
in that book of the Prophet Isaiah we see how God time and again
is rebuking the nation of Israel because all they had was a formal
religion. Theirs was not a religion of
the hearts. And this is what the Lord is rebuking them for.
Look at what he says in the very first chapter. Verse 11 of Chapter
1, To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith
the Lord? I am full of the burnt offerings,
of rams, and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood
of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to
appear before me, who has required this at your hands, to tread
my courts? Bring no more vain oblations,
incenses, and abomination unto me. the new moons and Sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even
the solemn meeting." And so he goes on. Now, these were divine
ordinances. This is what God required of
his people under the Levitical law. And yet, the Lord God sees
that their religion is nothing more than a form. Their heart
is not in their religion. That's what he's saying. And
as he begins the book, so he ends the book really on the same
note. In chapter 66, and verse 3, he
that killeth a lock is as if he slew a man. He that sacrificeth
a lamb as if he cut off a dog's neck. he that offered an oblation
as if he offered swine's blood, he that burneth incense as if
he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own
ways, and their soul delighted in their abominations. And God
will judge them. I will choose their delusions
and will bring their fears upon them. because when I called none
did answer, when I spake they did not hear, but they did evil
before my nose, and chose that in which I delighted not." Formal
religion, hypocritical religion, a religion that is nothing more
than pretense. Isn't that what the Lord is condemning? And remember how the Lord goes
on to speak in that portion we were reading. At the end of the passage we
read verses 19 and 20, Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man. Oh, it's that that comes from
the heart of men. Our greatest dangers, in a sense,
are those things that come from out of ourselves that proceed
out of our hearts, those things that are associated with what
we are in our fallen nature. Oh God forbid that we should
be those who are satisfied with the mere externals having a form,
having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. We want something real, we want
something surely to be accomplished in our souls. The Kingdom of
God, Paul says, is not in word, but in power. It's in power. It's the promise of the New Covenant.
It's a new heart. It's a new spirit. And as God is pleased to grant
the accomplishment of those things He has promised, then we can
heed His exhortation and obey His commandments. only as we
look to Him, only as we by faith are resting in all that Christ
is, all that Christ has done, all that Christ is yet doing
in us by His Spirit. Keep thy heart with all diligence
for out of it are the issues of life and then those things
that follow in the closing four verses will also have their accomplishment. We'll put away a froward mouth
The verse lips will remove far from us, our eyes will look right
on, will look straight before us, will ponder our path, will
seek to walk in the ways of obedience, not turning to the right hand
nor to the left, removing our foot from every evil one. Oh
the Lord grant that we might be blessed to know that fulfillment
of the promise of the New Covenant, to be in possession of a new
heart and a new spirit. May the Lord bless His Word.
Let us now turn to the hymnbook and sing God's praise. We'll
sing the hymn 1024, the Tunis Jacksons 163. O for a heart to praise the Lord,
a heart from sin set free, A heart that's sprinkled with the blood
So freely shed for me. 1024 June 163